It’s 2013, Marvel Studios has just released the conclusion to a beloved MCU trilogy that is proving much more controversial than hoped for… It’s 2023, and the same thing is happening again.
Fans would be forgiven for feeling like Doctor Manhattan right now (yes, that’s a DC reference in a Marvel-themed story — what? James Gunn wouldn’t mind) as the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is turning out to be eerily reminiscent of another MCU threequel that premiered a decade ago. And, unfortunately, not in a good way.
Although James Gunn’s long-anticipated threequel opened to a hugely encouraging Rotten Tomatoes score, things quickly went south for the movie as more — much more mixed — reactions poured in. Within a few hours of its review embargo lifting last Friday, Guardians 3 was already the worst-reviewed entry in its trilogy. Now it’s officially sunk lower than another third chapter in a beloved franchise that still inspires division 10 years later.
As of the time of writing, Guardians 3 sports a 77 percent RT score off the back of 107 reviews. This means it’s drawing in less positive critical notices than 2013’s Iron Man 3, which sits at a sturdy 79 percent critics rating on the site. While the film has a long way to go before it rivals the infamy of fellow threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (47 percent), it’s not all that encouraging that it’s no better than IM3 — a movie that many fans love, sure, but one that got a lot of hate at the time due to its big Mandarin twist.
If Vol. 3‘s final RT score settles around this mark, that will mean it’s unfortunately the second-worst of the MCU’s six threequels released to date, as the four above IM3 all rest above 90 percent — Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Avengers: Infinity War. That’s not exactly the reception we hoped for, but like Robert Downey Jr.’s trilogy-closer, many people are already seriously loving it. The odds are that Guardians 3 is set to still be dividing die-hards another decade from now.
